SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 premiere of “House of the Dragon,” now streaming on HBO Max.
“House of the Dragon” is back, with another main character being killed in epic fashion. In the Season 3 premiere of the “Game of Thrones,” and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) loses yet another child. After her young son Lucerys died in the Season 1 finale, her eldest son Jace (Harry Collett) was killed in the Battle of the Gullet along with his dragon, Vermax.
The season premiere wastes no time jumping right back into the action as Rhaenyra’s forces, aka the Blacks, are still at war with the Greens, the King’s Landing loyalists under King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his mother Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). Rhaenyra’s army, led by her uncle and husband Daemon (Matt Smith), is gaining strength as they’re joined by a grizzled pack of House Stark northmen known as the Winter Wolves. Plus, they have more dragonriders than the Greens after they bolstered their numbers with several dragonseeds, Targaryen bastards who can command the fire-breathing beasts. Skilled sailors Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and his bastard son Addam of Hull (Abubakar Salim) lead the Black’s navy against the Triarchy, a group of pirates led by Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn) who pledged fealty to the Greens. (Read Variety’s interview with Loni Peristere, the episode’s director.)
